Heavy rainfall triggered by Typhoon Bavi has brought flooding and strong winds to Anshan City of northeast China's Liaoning Province, prompting local authorities and emergency services to respond to rescue trapped residents and remove toppled trees.
The heavy deluge saw the equivalent of two months' rainfall pummel the city overnight, with an average precipitation of more than 126 millimeters recorded from Monday midnight through to 11:00 Tuesday.
Low-lying areas in urban districts saw a rapid water accumulation, with the rising floods wreaking havoc for motorists as their vehicles stalled in deep water, leaving drivers and passengers trapped.
Firefighters and rescuers waded through the flooded streets to reach stranded people, with inflatable boats being deployed.
Strong winds and torrential rain also toppled a large tree in the city, blocking a main road. Local police officers were mobilized, with a team working together using ropes to drag the uprooted tree aside and restore traffic in a timely manner.
The local meteorological department continued to issue a red alert for rainstorms, the highest level of China's four-tier, color coded weather warning system. As a result, all primary and secondary schools, vocational schools, kindergartens, and off-campus training institutions in the city have been ordered to suspend classes for the day.
Rescue efforts carried as heavy rain lashes northeast China city
Rally participants gathered in the Japanese capital on Aug 9, which also marked the 81st anniversary of the Nagasaki atomic bombing, to voice strong opposition to the government's push to boost defense spending and revise the war-renouncing Article 9 of the national Constitution.
Holding anti-war placards, chanting anti-war slogans, protesters warned that remilitarizing the nation would betray its pacifist ideals and endanger future generations.
"Defense spending keeps increasing. Based on Article 9 of the Constitution, Japan pledged never to wage war again, yet it keeps strengthening its military. I find this extremely dangerous. They are also trying to revise Article 9. So I believe that for the sake of future young people and children, Article 9 must never be revised. Japan decided never to repeat the mistakes of waging a war after its defeat in WWII. I think we should continue to safeguard that commitment," said a rally participant.
For many in the crowd, the shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains a powerful moral compass as they believe that militarization offers no path forward for a nation that knows the devastation of war firsthand.
"Japan is the only country in the world to have suffered atomic bombings. Yet now Japan is going to deploy missiles. I believe Japan must never possess nuclear weapons," said another rally participant.
"I believe Japan has no future if it goes down the path of militarization. Nuclear weapons are absolutely bad for Japan," said a third woman, also a rally participant.
Beyond moral objections, some demonstrators said that Japan's economic vulnerabilities articulate that saber-rattling is a luxury the country cannot afford.
"I can't help but wonder what on earth a country with only a 36 percent food self-sufficiency rate would be fighting with. I have always been opposed to war, and I'm deeply dissatisfied with what the Takaichi administration is doing now," said another rally participant.
Other rally participants said that seeing revision of the Constitution could unleash unchecked military expansion, stripping away the very safeguards that have kept Japan at peace for eight decades.
"Article 9 of the Constitution is the key. If the nature of the Self-Defense Forces is elevated to a level beyond collective self-defense, which is explicitly written into the Constitution, it will allow the authority of the Self-Defense Forces to expand without limit. So no matter what, I want to prevent this from happening," said one more rally participant.
Japanese citizens rally against Takaichi's military expansion, constitutional revision
